JOSABET, ZACHARIAH, SALOMITH, THE CHOIR.
JOSABET.
Dear Zachariah, go, without delay;
Accompany your noble father's steps.
Daughters of Levi, young and faithful band,
Whom now the Lord hath chosen for their zeal,
That come so frequently to share my sighs:
Children, my only joy in my long griefs,
Those flowers upon your heads, and in your hands
Those garlands were appropriate, formerly,
At our great festivals; but now, alas!
In these opprobious and afflicting times,
What offering so comely as our tears?
I hear, already, hear the sacred trumpet,
And soon the temple will be open to us.
Whilst I prepare myself for the occasion,
Sing to the Lord, whom you have come to seek.
Scene IV.
THE CHOIR.
All the Choir sing.
Let all adore our God; the universe
Is full of His magnificence!
Let all invoke Him ever:
His empire was before the birth of time;
Sing, and proclaim His benefactions.
One voice alone. In vain unrighteous violence hath imposed
Silence upon the people praising Him:
His name shall never perish.
Day unto day proclaims His glory and His power:
The universe is full of His magnificence:
Sing, and proclaim His benefactions.
All the Choir. The universe is full of His magnificence:
Sing, and proclaim His benefactions.
One voice alone.
He gives to flowers their lovely hues,
He brings the fruits to birth and ripens them;
To these He portions, with judicious care,
The heat of day and coolness of the night:
The fields receiving them, return
The gifts with usury.
Another.
He bids the sun to animate His works,
And light's the power of His own hands;
But still His holy law, His spotless law
Is richest blessing God has given mankind.
Another.
O, Mount of Sinai, keep eternally
In our remembrance the illustrious day,
When on thy flaming summit, in a cloud,
Densely enveloped, God into the eye
Of mortals caused to shine
A beamlet of His glory.
O tell me why those lightnings and those flames
The floods of vapour, rumblings in the air,
The trumpetings, and thunder:
Came He to overturn
The order of the elements?
Came He to shake the earth
Upon its old foundations?
Another.
He came to witness to the Hebrew children
His holy precepts' everlasting light;
He came to bid that happy people love Him
With a love eternal.
All the Choir.
O law divine, delightful law!
O justice, tenderness supreme!
What satisfaction, sweetness overflowing,
To pledge unto that God our love and faith!
One voice alone.
He freed our fathers from a cruel yoke;
While in the desert, with delicious food
He nourished them: He gives to us His law,
He gives Himself; and for such benefits
He orders us to love Him.
The Choir. O justice, tenderness supreme!
The same voice.
For them He closed the waters of the sea,
And from an arid rock made fountains gush;
He gives to us His law, He gives Himself;
And for such benefits
He orders us to love Him.
The Choir. O law divine, delightful law!
What satisfaction, sweetness overflowing,
To pledge unto that God our love and faith!
Another voice alone.
O you, who only know a servile fear,
Ingrates, can not a God so good delight you?
Is it so difficult unto your hearts,
So painful, then, to love Him?
The bondsman dreads the tyrant's violence,
But love's the portion of a child:
You wish that God should load you with His blessings,
Without returning Him your love!
All the Choir.
O law divine, delightful law!
O justice, tenderness supreme!
What satisfaction, sweetness overflowing,
To pledge unto that God our love and faith!
ACT SECOND,—Scene I. and II.
JOSABET, SALOMITH, THE CHOIR.
JOSABET.
That is enough, my daughters, cease your chanting:
Tis time to mingle in the public prayers.
Our hour is come; Let us go celebrate
This glorious day, and, in our turn, appear
Before the Lord. What do I see! my son!
What is the cause that hastens your return?
Where run you thus, all pale and out of breath?
ZACHARIAH.
O, my mother!
JOSABET.
Well! what!
ZACHARIAH.
The temple is profaned!
JOSABET.
How?—
ZACHARIAH.
And by the Lord the temple is abandoned.
JOSABET.
I tremble; hasten to enlighten me.
ZACHARIAH.
My sire, the high priest, having offered up,
According to the law, the sacred bread
Of the new harvest, to the God that fosters
Mankind, appearing still with gory hands
Fresh from the reeking entrails of the victim;
Close to his side the young Eliacin
Assisting, like myself, in linen vests;
The priests, meanwhile, with sacrificial blood
Besprinkling the assembly and the altar;
A murmur indistinct arose; at once
The astonished people turn aside their glance,—
A woman—can I name her and not curse?—
A woman—It was Athaliah's self!
JOSABET.
Heavens!
ZACHARIAH.
In one of the church courts, reserved for men,
This haughty woman enters, with proud mien,
And even prepares to overpass the bounds
Of the enclosure sacred, which alone
Is open to the Levites. Terrified
The people fled in every way. My father—
Ah! what resentment kindled in his eye!
Moses to Pharoah seemed less formidable:
Queen! go! said he, and quit this awful place,
From which thy sex and vices banish thee:
Dost thou come here to brave the majesty
Of the Eternal God? At which the queen,
Casting on him infuriated glance,
Her mouth was opening, doubtless, to blaspheme:
I know not if the angel of the Heavens
Appearing showed to her a flaming sword;
But instantly her tongue and lips were frozen,
And all her over-boldness was abashed;
As if her eyes were awe-struck, they were fixed;
And, above all, Eliacin appeared
To amaze her.
JOSABET.
What! Has Eliacin been seen by her?
ZACHARIAH.
We both of us beheld that cruel queen,
Who with an equal horror struck our hearts:
But very soon the priests surrounded us—
They caused us to withdraw. Of all the rest
I'm ignorant, and I returned to tell
You of this woeful uproar.
JOSABET.
She came, no doubt, to tear him from our arms;
Her fury came to seek him at the altar!
Perhaps, the object of so many tears
Is at this moment—God, who seest my grief,
Do Thou remember David!
SALOMITH.
What is the reason of your flooding tears?
ZACHARIAH.
Ah! Is Eliacin's life in danger?
SALOMITH.
Has he attracted Athaliah's rage?
ZACHARIAH.
What! does she fear a child without support,
And fatherless?
JOSABET.
Ah! here she is. Come, let us go: we must
Avoid her.
